brum-brum…
Having just been faced with my annual insurance renewal I have to ask how did get to this current situation where the cost of insuring the car is more than the car’s worth? OK, I admit I did run into the back of an unmarked armoured Police X5 earlier in the year but to any car owner, and especially those with teenage children wanting to maximise their freedom to the full, it’s fairly obvious that this cost has shot far, far ahead of the cost of inflation and earnings. What may surprise you to know though is that we’re all having far fewer accidents, fatalities have decreased rapidly over the last ten years, car crime is now negligible and car prices have fallen. Apparently, it all goes on the cost of accidents.
In reality, we’re all now paying for all the nonsense now built into our premium – deliberately bloated repair costs, outrageously priced ‘courtesy’ car hire, spurious whiplash claims and burgeoning uninsured losses. The insurance industry wails incessantly about it, but it’s its own fault. And we’re picking up the tab. Usually, the person paying for the repair isn’t the one doing the repair – it’s shunted off to the ‘insurer’s’ authorised repairer and there the meter goes on. Guess what? Yep, there is no incentive whatsoever to keep the coats down and in fact, just the opposite occurs. And it’s reversed and repaid in full upon the repeat journey!
From where I’m standing (as my car’s not yet been fixed) a fundamental rethink needs to take place as the system looks way over-loaded with additional and hidden costs. Insurance is quite rightly compulsory but private companies appear ill-suited to its application.
